Q&A: WHO candidate David Nabarro
As candidate for the World Health Organization director-general, Nabarro vows to make the case to donors that the agency is in every nation's national interest — and therefore worth funding more generously and flexibly.

Q&A: WHO candidate Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Director-general candidate Tedros of Ethiopia says he would begin reforming the World Health Organization by listening to concerns and assessing priorities. Member states should up their funding commitment if they want a real decision-making power in the organization's future, he tells Devex.

Q&A: WHO candidate Sania Nishtar
As Pakistan's candidate to lead the World Health Organization, Sania Nishtar tells Devex she will push transparency and accountability, just as she has in previous government and international roles.

Election sees WHO's future role in questionDevex, 12 Jan
When Jean-Bosco Ndihokubwayo reported back to headquarters in April 2014, the World Health Organization Ebola expert did the electronic equivalent of shouting. “WE NEED SUPPORT,” he wrote in the subject line of an email to Geneva describing a ballooning epidemic at a major public hospital in the Guinean capital of Conakry.

WHO DG Address to the Executive Board at its 140th session
The world is better prepared for the next influenza pandemic, but not at all well enough.
I am asking all countries to keep a close watch over outbreaks of avian influenza in birds and related human cases. Just since November of last year, nearly 40 countries have reported fresh outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza in poultry or wild birds.
The rapidly expanding geographical distribution of these outbreaks and the number of virus strains currently co-circulating have put WHO on high alert. For example, the H5N6 virus causing severe outbreaks in Asia is a new strain created by gene-swapping among four different viruses.
Since 2013, China has reported epidemics of H7N9 infections in humans, now amounting to more than 1000 cases, of which 38.5% were fatal.
The latest epidemic, which began in late September 2016, started earlier than usual, and since December has shown a sudden and steep increase in cases. In the most recent two clusters, WHO could not rule out limited human-to-human transmission, though no sustained transmission has been detected to date.
As required by the International Health Regulations, all countries must detect and report human cases promptly. We cannot afford to miss the early signals.

PREPAREDNESS AND RESILIENCE

Interagency Cooperation Is the Key to an Effective Pandemic ResponseThe Lancet, Jan 2017
We view this from the perspective of the interface between the military and civilians under the umbrella of a whole-government approach. A large outbreak does more than cross international borders; the response requirements frequently cross interagency boundaries.

We're not prepared for future Ebola outbreaks, experts warn
STAT, 17 Jan
Despite recent headlines declaring the success of an experimental Ebola vaccine, the world is not fully prepared for future epidemics — and not in position to use vaccines to prevent another deadly outbreak, a report published Tuesday warned.

Why Doctors Without Borders Is Adding Food to Its Medical Bag
Goats and Soda, 11 Jan
"I've been with Medecins Sans Frontieres for about 5 years, and this is the first time I've seen such massive food distribution," says Dr. Kerstin Hanson, a pediatrician specializing in childhood malnutrition and nutrition and pediatrics technical adviser to MSF. "The problem is not just medical care. The problem is that there is no food."

Response to climate change is critical as risk of disease outbreaks grows Conversation Media Group, 9 Jan
Climate change threatens to significantly increase the health risk of people living in the East African Highlands. In addition, droughts have intensified. These have have both short-term and long term effects on human health. Yet there are no guidelines to inform health related decisions under climate change conditions.

Outpacing pandemics - data visualizationMosaicscience, Jan 2016
Vaccines are an essential weapon in fighting disease outbreaks. But how does the time taken to develop vaccines compare to the speed and frequency of outbreaks? And how can we do it better?

Data, Disease and Diplomacy: GISAID's Innovative Contribution to Global HealthGlobal Challenges, 10 Jan
Scientists must rapidly share information to assess the nature of the threat and develop new medical countermeasures. This article undertakes the first analysis of the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data as an innovative policy effort to promote the international sharing of genetic and associated influenza virus data.

Harnessing hi-tech to reduce riskUNISDR, 16 Dec
Hi-tech tools are a powerful means to reduce the impacts of hazards and enable communities to recover faster if disaster strikes, experts at an international risk and development conference said this week.